Sleep Paralysis – What It Is and How to Stop It

Sleep paralysis is a state during which you consciously understand that you cannot move your body during awakening or falling asleep. It is very often accompanied by hallucinations and fear. Sleep paralysis lasts from several seconds to several minutes. Approximately 33% of people experience sleep paralysis, so it’s a normal situation and there is nothing to worry about if you experienced it too. Sleep paralysis is the result of disrupted or started too early REM sleep, when you should not be able to move muscle (it prevents you from acting out your dreams).

Now you know what is sleep paralysis. Let us assume you suddenly realize that physical functionality has ceased due to the onset of this phenomenon. During sleep paralysis, it is impossible to scream, call for help, or even move a finger. In the majority of cases, it is also impossible to open the eyes.

This is where it gets interesting. People are accustomed to an important rule: if you wish to achieve something, then do it, and do it as actively as possible. This rule, though good, is not always applicable to certain conditions. Sometimes extreme effort makes it possible to break through sleep paralysis (stop it) and resume movement, though most of these efforts tend to exacerbate immobility.

Ignorance of correct procedures has led to the widespread opinion that such adverse situations may make it impossible to come back from dreams at all. However, the solution to this problem rests in very simple actions and procedures that can prevent a large number of negative experiences:

How to Stop Sleep Paralysis

Complete Relaxation

You only need to completely relax and ignore any perceived sensations, actions, or thoughts. You may also recite a prayer, mantra, or rhyme, since that helps the consciousness to be distracted from the situation more quickly. Of course, you need to calm down and try to get rid of the fear, which in and of itself is capable of keeping sleep paralysis going. Periodically, the practitioner should try to move a finger in order to check whether attempts at relaxation have had an effect.

Concentration on a Finger

A victim experiencing sleep paralysis should try moving a finger or a toe. At first this won’t work, but you have to concentrate precise thought and effort on the action. After a little while, the physical finger will begin to move. The problem with this technique is that you may accidentally start making phantom (dream) motions instead of physical movements, which is why an understanding of the difference between the two sensations is necessary, since it is often not very obvious.

Concentration on Possible Movements

The physiology of sleep paralysis and dreams are such that when you are in one of these states, some actions are always associated with movements made in the physical body. This is true when moving the eyeballs, the tongue, or while breathing. If you concentrate attention on these processes, it is possible counteract inhibitions to physical movement; as a result, a sleep-paralyzed victim will become able to move in reality.

Reevaluating the Situation

If you aren’t able to activate the physical body using other emergency return techniques, a careful consideration of the possibilities offered by lucid dreaming is recommended. There are many interesting and useful things that can be experienced in a lucid dream. Why ruin the possibility of great opportunity because of a baseless fear? Essentially, you’re already in a lucid dream if experience sleep paralysis, and all that’s left is to separate from the stencil body. In this case, the preferred separation techniques are levitation, trying imagine yourself already separated or at some location (e.g. the first destination on your plan of action), and also trying to feel the sensation of flight.

To be fair, it must be noted that emergency exit techniques do not always work. As a rule, after a long period of sleep deprivation, or at the beginning of or in the middle of a night’s sleep, the urge to sleep is so great that it is difficult to resist the sleep paralysis phenomenon. In this respect, reevaluating the situation is highly recommended so that you are able to take advantage of the situation versus suffering by it.

Sleep paralysis is often experienced during “alien abductions”, “near-death experience”, and other paranormal phenomena. Moreover, you can see traces of sleep paralysis in the Bible:

Book of Job, Chapter 4

12 Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.

13 In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,

14 Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.

15 Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:

16 It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image [was] before mine eyes, [there was] silence, and I heard a voice,

First book of the Torah: Genesis, Chapter 15

12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him.

13 And he said unto Abram, “Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land [that is] not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years.”